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INSTALLATION 

OF 

PRESIDENT LOW 

February 3, 1890 



PROCEEDINGS 



AT 



THE INSTALLATION 



SETH LOW, LLD. 



PRESIDENT OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE 
IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK , 



FEBRUARY 3, 1890 



-r 





NEW YORK 

PRINTED FOR THE COLLEGE 

APRIL, 1890 



^?y 1 



INSTALLATION 

OF 

PRESIDENT LOW 



The Honorable Seth Low, of the Class of 1870, was 
elected President of Columbia College in the city of New 
York, at the meeting of the Trustees of the College held on 
Monday, the seventh day of October, 1889. He accepted 
the office in the following letter : 

201 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, 
Oct. 28, 1889. 

Gerard Beekman, Esq., Clerk of the Trustees of Columbia 

College : 

Sir: — I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your 
official communication informing me of my election by the 
Trustees as President of Columbia College. The honor is 
at the same time the summons to a duty which I may not 
decline. I accept, therefore, the position to which I have 
been chosen, with grateful thanks to my colleagues for this 
culminating mark of their confidence and good-will, and 
with the assurance that I will do every thing in my power 
to justify their judgment. 

If it is acceptable to the Trustees, I should propose to 
assume the duties of the President at the beginning of the 
second term, or about the first week in February. I am 
permitted to say, by the courtesy of my old and valued 
friend, the Acting President, Dr. Drisler, that this time 
commends itself to him, also, as the best time for the new 
presidency to begin. 

With great respect, I am. 

Yours faithfully, 

Seth Low. 



4 COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 

A committee of Trustees, with the Acting President of 
the College, the Secretary of the Board of the College, and 
the President of the Association of the Alumni, made the 
preliminary arrangements, and, on its report and recommen- 
dation, the Trustees, at their stated meeting of December 
2, 1889, authorized the leasing of the Metropolitan Opera 
House for the installation ceremonies, directed " that all 
the Faculties of the College be invited to unite in choosing 
a representative to make an address on their behalf on the 
occasion of the Installation of the President-elect " ; "that 
the Governing Bodies of the Alumni Associations of the 
College be invited to unite in choosing a representative to 
make an address on behalf of all the Alumni on that occa- 
sion " ; "that the members of the several Faculties, and 
other officers of instruction, of the College, be requested " 
to appear, at the Installation, in academic costume of cap 
and gown. 

The chairman of the Board of Trustees, the Hon. Hamil- 
ton Fish, LL.D., having been, at his own request, excused, 
by reason of uncertain health, from making the address of 
Installation, the Reverend Morgan Dix, S.T.D., D.C.L., 
was appointed to make the address on behalf of the 
Trustees. 

At the same meeting of December 2, the Trustees 
appointed a committee consisting of : 

The Hon. Hamilton Fish, LL.D., chairman, 

Joseph W. Harper, 

George L. Peabody, M.D., 

William C. Schermerhorn, 

John Crosby Brown, 

Prof. Henry Drisler, LL.D., Acting President of the 
College, 

Prof. J. H. Van Amringe, Ph.D., Secretary of the Board 
of the College, 

" to prepare and take charge of the proceedings on the oc- 
casion of the Installation of the President-elect." 

The committee appointed Professor Van Amringe its 
secretary, and charged him with the carrying out of such 
arrangements as might be made. 



INSTALLA TION OF PRESIDENT LO W. 5 

Early official notice was received that all the Faculties of 
the College had united in choosing Henry Drisler, LL.D., 
Senior Professor and Acting President, to make the address 
on their behalf on the occasion of the Installation of the 
President-elect, and that the Governing Bodies of the 
Alumni Associations had united in choosing Frederic R. 
Coudert, LL.D., of the class of 1850, President of the 
Alumni Association of the College, to make the address on 
behalf of all the alumni. 

In the name of the Trustees, the committee issued 
invitations to be present at the installation proceedings to : 

The President of the United States and the members of 
his Cabinet ; 

The Chief-Justice and the Justices of the Supreme Court 
of the United States ; 

The Senators of the United States from the State of New 
York; 

The Superintendent of the United States Coast and 
Geodetic Survey ; 

The Chief Signal Officer of the United States ; 

The Superintendent of the United States Naval Ob- 
servatory ; 

The United States Commissioner of Education ; 

The following officers of the State of New York, viz. : the 
Governor, the Lieutenant-Governor, the Secretary of State, 
the Treasurer, the Comptroller, the Attorney-General, the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Adjutant-General, 
the State Engineer, the Speaker of the Assembly, the Chan- 
cellor of the University of the State of New York ; 

The following officers of the city of New York, viz. : 
the Mayor, the President of the Board of Aldermen, the 
Comptroller, the President of the Board of Education ; 

The following officers of the city of Brooklyn, viz. : the 
Mayor, the President of the Board of Aldermen, the Comp- 
troller, the City Auditor ; 

The President, and a delegation from the Faculty, of 
each of seventy American Colleges and Universities ; 

A delegation from the Faculty of each of eight Theo- 
logical Seminaries ; 



6 COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 

The Professors constituting the Faculty of the General 
Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
in the city of New York ; 

The Professors constituting the Faculty of the Union 
Theological Seminary in the city of New York ; 

The members of the Vestry of Trinity Parish in the city 
of New York ; 

A delegation from the governing bodies of each of vari- 
ous institutions and of scientific and learned bodies to the 
number of twenty-five ; 

The Trustees, and the Professors constituting the Faculty, 
of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Medical Depart- 
ment of Columbia College ; 

The officers and the members of the Standing Committee 
of the Association of the Alumni of Columbia College ; 

The officers and the managers of the Alumni Association 
of the School of Mines of Columbia College ; 

The Trustees of Barnard College, New York City ; 

The Trustees, and the Professors constituting the Faculty, 
of the Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y. ; 

The Trustees of Packer Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y. ; 

Four hundred others, gentlemen of consideration and 
distinction in the various walks of life. 

The Alumni of the College, in all its departments, were 
notified through the public press, and to every alumnus, 
whose address was known, was sent a copy of the following 
circular : 

Columbia College, 

New York, January, 1890. 

The Installation of Seth Low, LL.D., as President of 
Columbia College, will take place at the Metropolitan Opera 
House, Broadway and 39th Street, on Monday morning, 
February the third, at half-past ten o'clock. 

The Parquette has been reserved for the students of the 
College, and the boxes for officers and invited guests. 

The Dress Circle, the Balcony, and the Family Circle, 



INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. J 

having together a seating capacity of about i,8oo, are for 
the use of alumni generally and members of their families. 
Tickets of admission may be had on application, in writing, 
to the 

Secretary of the 

Board of the College. 

The favorable responses to the invitations were very 
numerous, and, on the occasion of the Installation, the 
Metropolitan Opera House was well filled with a brilliant 
and representative assemblage. 

The Grand Marshal of the day was George G. De Witt, 
Jr., of the Class of 1867, who was assisted in his duties by 



MARSHALS. 



William G. Lathrop, Jr., 
George G. Kip, 
Abraham Van Santvoord, 
John V. Wheeler, 
Nicholas Fish, 
Fredk. de Peyster Foster, 
Henry D. Babcock, 
William A. Duer, 
Alexander B. Simonds, 
Gilbert M. Spier, Jr., 
John T. Williams, 
Robert C. Cornell, 
Edward S. Rapallo, 



Wm. de L. Benedict, 
John B. Pine, 
Edward E. Sage, 
James W. Pryor, 
Frederick D. Phillips, 
Wm. Fellowes Morgan, 
Alvan H. Van Sinderen, 
William S. Sloan, 
M. Orme Wilson, 
George A Suter, 
Lincoln Cromwell, 
Edward P. Casey, 
Thatcher T. P. Luquer, 



and by the following undergraduates, representatives of 
every class of students of each of the Schools upon the 
College Block, as 

AIDS. 



Marston T, Bogert, 
Thomas M. St. John, 
Charles L. Livingston, 
T. M. Randolph Meikleham, 
John A. Dempsey, 



Reginald H. Arnold, 
Charles C. Kalbfleisch, 
Rolla B. Watson, 
John F. Putnam, 
George C. Southard, 



8 COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 

Lindley M. Keasbey, Arthur T. Hewlett, 

George H. Walker, Edward L. Dufourcq, 

Clarence C. Ferris, Harvey R. Kingsley, 

Robert A, Ashworth, Reginald G. Foster, 

Frederick E. Pierce, William R. Brinckerhoff, 

William A. Taintor. 

A delegation from the students of the College of Physi- 
cians and Surgeons, Medical Department of Columbia Col- 
lege, was present by invitation, under the marshalship of 
Herman C. Riggs. 

The guests proceeded from the Assembly Room to the 
stage in the following 

ORDER OF PROCESSION. 

1. Trustees of Columbia College. 

2. Regents of the University of the State of New 

York. 

3. Representatives of the United States, State, and 

City Governments, and officers of the Army 
and Navy. 

4. Chaplain of Columbia College. 

5. Professors of Columbia College. 

6. Instructors, Tutors, and Fellows of Columbia 

College. 

7. Presidents of other Universities and Colleges. 

8. Delegates from other Universities and Colleges. 

9. The Reverend Clergy. 
10. Other invited guests. 

TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 

The Chairman of the Board and the President-elect, 
William C. Schermerhorn, Morgan Dix, S.T.D., D.C.L., 
Samuel Blatchford, LL.D., Stephen P. Nash, LL.D., 
Joseph W. Harper, Charles A. Silliman, 

Frederick A. Schermerhorn, Gerard Beekman, 
Abram N. Littlejohn, D.D., Edward Mitchell, 



INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 



W. Bayard Cutting, 
George L. Rives, 
George L. Peabody, M.D., 
Charles M. DaCosta, 
William H. Draper, M.D., 



Talbot W. Chambers, S.T.D., 
Lenox Smith, 
John Crosby Brown, 
Henry C. Potter, D.D., 
LL.D. (Cantab.), 



Marvin R. Vincent, S.T.D. 

Heading the body of Professors of the College was Senior 
Professor Drisler, orator of the day on behalf of all the fac- 
ulties, accompanied by Frederic R. Coudert, Esq., LL.D., 
orator on behalf of all the alumni. The remaining Profes- 
sors, the Instructors, Tutors, and Fellows of the College 
followed in order of their appointment : 

PROFESSORS. 



William G. Peck, Ph.D., Theodore W. Dwight, 

LL.D., LL.D., 

John Ordronaux, M.D., J. Howard Van Amringe, 

LL.D., A.M., Ph.D., 

Ogden N. Rood, A.M., Thomas Egleston, E.M., 

Ph.D., LL.D., 

Charles F. Chandler, Ph.D., John S. Newberry, M.D., 

. M.D., LL.D., LL.D., 

George Chase, LL.B,, John W. Burgess, A.M., 

Ph.D., LL.D., 

William P. Trowbridge, Henry S. Munroe, E.M., 

Ph.D., LL.D., Ph.D. 

Richmond M. Smith, A.M., Charles Sprague Smith, A.M., 

Augustus C. Merriam, A.M., Thomas R. Price, A.M., 

Ph.D., LL.D., 

Frederick R. Hutton, E.M., Hjalmar H. Boyesen, Ph.D., 

Ph.D., 

John K. Rees, A.M., E.M., Benjamin F. Lee, LL.D., 

Munroe Smith, A.M., John D. Quackenbos, A.M., 

J.U.D., M.D., 

Pierre de P. Ricketts, E.M., Elwyn Waller, A.M., E.M., 

Ph.D., Ph.D., 



lO COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 

Jasper T. Goodwin, A.M., Frank J. Goodnow, A.M., 

LL.B., LL.B., 

Richard J. H. Gottheil, Edwin R. A. Seligman, 

Ph.D., LL.B., Ph.D., 

Harry T. Peck, A.M., Ph.D., Nicholas Murray Butler, 

L.H.D., Ph.D., 

William H. Carpenter, Ph.D., Alfred D. F. Hamlin, A.M. 



INSTRUCTORS. 



TUTORS. 



FELLOWS. 



The ceremonies attending the Installation proceeded in 
accordance with the following 

ORDER OF EXERCISES. 



Overture : 

Introduction to Act III Meistersinger (Wagner) 

Orchestra. 

Processional, 

Orchestra. 



L Prayer, By the Rev. Cornelius R. Duffie, S.T.D., 

Chaplain of the College. 
IL Address on behalf of the Trustees, 

By the Rev. Morgan Dix. S.T.D., D.C.L. 
in. The Installation, 

By the Hon. Hamilton Fish, LL.D., 
Chairman of the Board of Trustees. 

IV. Reply by the President. 



Dance of the Blessed Spirits from Orpheus (Gluck) 
Orchestra. 



INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. II 

V. Address on behalf of all the Faculties, 

By Professor Henry Drisler, LL.D. 
VI. Address on behalf of all the Alumni, 

By Frederic R. Coudert, LL.D., of the Class of 1850, 
VII. Reply by the President. 



Air on the G String (Bach) 
Orchestra. 



VIII. President's Inaugural Address. 

IX. Benediction, 

By the Right Rev. Henry C. Potter, D.D., 
LL.D. (Cantab.) Bishop of New York. 



March from The Ruins of Athens (Beethoven) 
Orchestra. 



This narrative may appropriately conclude with an edito- 
rial article from the accomplished pen of GEORGE WiLLlAM 
Curtis, which appeared in Harper s Weekly of February 15, 
1890, entitled 

"A GREAT DAY FOR COLUMBIA." 

The Installation of the new President of Columbia Col- 
lege in the city of New York was an event of very great 
interest and significance. A man of scholarly accomplish- 
ment and training, of great experience in public and com- 
mercial affairs, of a singularly sound and wise judgment, of 
tried administrative skill, and of tranquil independence and 
courage, blended with admirable moderation, is called, in 
the full vigor of his manhood and before middle age, to the 
conduct of a College which had a close and intimate rela- 



12 COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 

tion to the local and national life of the last century, but 
whose influence upon the modern life of New York and the 
country has been less marked. The proceedings in the 
Metropolitan Opera House, which offers a fitting and stately 
scene for so dignified and impressive a ceremonial, were 
worthy of the great occasion. The vast and sympathetic 
audience and the distinguished assembly of guests, which 
was probably as notable a gathering of men most eminent 
in institutions of learning as has been seen in the country, 
except perhaps at the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary 
of the foundation of Harvard, listened with unflagging 
sympathy to a series of admirable addresses, in which not 
only the highest proprieties of the occasion were observed, 
but in the more important of which the tone was signifi- 
cant and unmistakable. 

The chief address was the inaugural oration of President 
Low. Like all his addresses of the day, it was spoken 
without notes, and with the easy and simple self-possession 
of a master of the occasion and the situation. The address 
itself was briefly historical, and then passed naturally to a 
statement of the scope of a great university, and to a strong 
plea from one of the best representatives of the character- 
istic activities of New York for the generous support by 
New York of an institution which, with so fine an historic 
tradition, represents the intellectual and spiritual forces 
which are the enduring foundations of human society. It 
was a strong, wise, dignified, and eloquent appeal, and it 
was impossible not to feel that with the orator at the head 
of the College, now peculiarly prosperous if compared with 
previous years, and with public sentiment more friendly, 
than since its earlier day, the probability of a generous and 
effective local public sympathy would soon be apparent. 

In the evening, at the brilliant dinner of the Alumni, 
President Low made some very interesting and detailed 
statements in regard to the pecuniary condition and pros- 
pects of the College, and added the emphatic remark that 
while its resources seemed large, the expenses of such an 
institution, if adequately maintained and reasonably en- 



INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 1 3 

larged, would be very much greater than any income now 
possible. President Eliot, of Harvard, in a frank and 
friendly speech, which fitly ended the proceedings of a 
memorable college day with the counsel and benediction 
of our oldest college, mentioned some facts in regard to 
Harvard similar to those respecting Columbia mentioned by 
President Low. Upon this subject the moral of the Har- 
vard President's speech was that Columbia required a more 
liberal support from New York than it had received, and 
that with such support it would become an institution in 
extent and variety, no less than in quality, worthy of the 
chief city of the country. His concluding remarks upon 
the true range and scope of such an institution were in a 
lofty strain, which was as delightful as it was natural, be- 
cause it was the true voice of Harvard. It was the close of 
a day of renewed hope and faith and energy, which had 
recalled Jay and Hamilton, Livingston and Morris, Clinton 
and Verplanck, to illustrate the early leadership of Colum- 
bia, and to stimulate the just pride of a great city in its 
oldest school. The chief colleges which were not too dis- 
tant had come to congratulate their comrade. A host of 
proud Alumni were gathered to cheer the happy event. 
" It is a great day for Columbia," said Mr. Coudert, the 
President of the Alumni, as with quaint humor and felici- 
tous eloquence he presided at the dinner ; " but it is a 
greater day for New York." 



ADDRESSES. 



15 



ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE TRUSTEES 

BY 

The Rev. MORGAN DIX, S.T.D., D.C.L. 

The Trustees of Columbia College have requested 
me to take the place of the honorable and eminent 
Chairman of their Board, whose uncertain state of 
health constrains him, to the regret of all present, to 
decline the exercise of a prerogative of his office ; 
and have directed me to address you in their name, 
on this auspicious occasion of your inauguration as 
our President. The official act of the day is per- 
formed without misgiving. If you were now coming 
to us, a stranger to the place, and not yet intimately 
known to our corporate body, we might perhaps have 
paused for a moment to scan the future, and endeavor 
to forecast your course. But it is not so ; you are no 
stranger, but one of our own official household. A 
distinguished alumnus of the College, and noted, 
from the outset, for your devotion to your Alma 
Mater, you were called, at the proper time, to a place 
in the governing body, and there have we sat together 
as colleagues. Your mind is known to us ; we are 
familiar with your lines of thought, your mode of 
handling practical subjects, your views on the ques- 

17 



1 8 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 

tions of policy, and your patience and industry in 
affairs of administration. With the advantage of 
that intimate acquaintance, we took a step which 
attested our confidence in your mental qualities, your 
intellectual ability, your moral and religious charac- 
ter, and your personal honor, and, by our vote, 
entrusted the interests of this venerable institution to 
your care. That act, itself an evidence of the esteem 
in which you are held, dispenses with the customary 
use of formal congratulations. Indeed, the occasion 
is not one for complimentary speech ; a serious pur- 
pose moves and inspires the actors in this scene. 
Deeply sensible of their responsibility for the future 
welfare of this ancient seat of learning, the Trustees 
have selected as its President one who has given full 
proof of wisdom and earnest intention, and is consid- 
ered to be eminently qualified to bear the weighty 
burden laid on him to-day. 

It is an instinct with men, on such occasions as this, 
to cast a retrospective glance at the past. You, sir, 
are the eleventh in the list of the Presidents of Co- 
lumbia College. To recount the names of all your 
distinguished predecessors is unnecessary, but I crave 
permission to allude to the two next before you in 
order. On the evening of Monday, November 7, 
1849, ^^ '^^ College Chapel, on our old site between 
Park Place and Church Street, Mr. Charles King was 
formally installed. The official acts were performed 
on that occasion by General Laight, Chairman of the 
Board ; the address of welcome was delivered by that 
reverend and accomplished gentleman, Professor John 
McVickar. It is worthy of note that the accession 
of Mr. King was hailed on the score of his practical 



ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE TRUSTEES. I9 

familiarity with public affairs, in the belief that his 
administration would open a new sphere of popular 
influence, and strengthen the bonds of sympathy 
between our College and this great commercial 
metropolis. It may also be observed that in the 
addresses delivered on the occasion there is an 
echo faint, yet distinct, of the din of arms. On the 
right of the President-elect at the inauguration cere- 
monies, sat one of the most illustrious soldiers of his 
day, then decorated with laurels freshly gathered 
from the field of a successful foreign war ; for the 
treaty of peace with Mexico had been made February 
2, 1848. The era was one of transition in our College 
history ; preparations were already on foot for a 
change of site, and an expansion of our educational 
system. Fifteen years passed by, and then, on Mon- 
day, October 3, 1864, on the present site of the Col- 
lege, and in the Chapel, the inauguration of that 
illustrious man took place whom it is the first of your 
distinctions to succeed. 

The address on that occasion was made by him 
who, for thirty years, has admirably filled the ofifice 
of Chairman of this Board, and still adorns our Coun- 
cil-room by his presence and illuminates our delibera- 
tions by his learning and wisdom, a man to whom 
the whole community do honor, whose fame is the 
possession of his country. Then, as at the previous 
inauguration, was heard the sound of conflict, and 
more distinctly than before ; for we were in the third 
year of a terrible war, which tried men's souls, and 
ended in the overthrow of every power opposed to 
the cause of the nation. To-day, in happy contrast, 
our ears attend no unwelcome or intrusive cry ; the 



20 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 

day of your inauguration is a day of peace ; favoring 
signs now bid us advance without fear, while learning 
unfolds her treasures, and science displays her wonders, 
and religion invokes a benediction from on high. 

We have no word of counsel to offer on this occa- 
sion. Yesterday your companions in office, to-day 
the supporters of your administration, it suffices that 
we pledge to you simply and frankly our cordial sup- 
port. You are well acquainted with the traditions of 
the College. You recall perhaps the words spoken 
by President Barnard twenty-six years ago ; words 
worthy of being engraved on tablets, and set up at 
the entering in of our gates. " I trust," said that 
great man, "that Columbia College may continue to 
be what she has ever hitherto been — a nursery of 
sound learning and a school of thorough intellectual 
training. I trust that she may continue to foster, no 
less assiduously than heretofore, the love of that 
noble literature of antiquity, which has ever been 
esteemed the indispensable basis of finished scholar- 
ship ; and that she may, at the same time, open wide 
the way to those rich treasures of science which the 
tireless spirit of modern investigation has wrung from 
nature by the direct interrogation of the glorious 
works of God. I trust that, while firmly holding fast 
that which is good of the accumulated learning of the 
past, she may show herself equally alive to the splen- 
dor of the intellectual triumphs which distinguish and 
illustrate the present ; and may even take rank as a 
positive participant in those grand movements of 
progress by which the boundaries of human knowl- 
edge are extended, and the human race itself lifted to 
a higher level in the scale of being." 



ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE TRUSTEES. 21 

These aspirations are ours also ; we believe them 
to be your own. We desire to see the honor of Co- 
lumbia College maintained, as a school in which the 
entire man is educated, and the whole nature directed 
to a symmetrical growth. It is not merely the num- 
ber of students that constitutes the glory of a seat of 
learning, but the thoroughness with which the work 
of their instruction is done. It is not the popular 
voice which is to decide the form or limits of educa- 
tion ; come from what quarter it will, dictation to the 
governing body of a university is an assault on their 
rights, and an effort at usurping their authority ; for 
the business of education is to mould, and not to be 
moulded by, those on whom it operates. You, sir, 
will look not to what may be impatiently or ignorantly 
demanded of us, but solely to what ought to be, for 
the honor of the College, for the benefit of ingenuous 
youth, and for the greatest good to the people. In 
your efforts that way you may count on us to uphold 
you in every trial, and to second you in every design 
for the advancement of the age. 

Great is the contrast between the simple scenes of 
other days and that presented in this vast building, 
which is hardly capacious enough to contain the 
sympathetic spectators of this imposing ceremonial. 
You stand here surrounded by an admiring and en- 
thusiastic assemblage ; by the learned in every liberal 
profession ; by men distinguished for ability in the 
community ; by the fair, who regard you with that 
kind interest which is ever the spur and stimulus to 
honorable ambition ; by these young men whom we 
now solemnly confide to your care. You enter upon 
your office with great advantages : in the prime of 



22 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 

manly strength ; conspicuous in the community for 
knowledge of the world, experience in affairs, rever- 
ence for sacred things, an incorruptible fidelity to the 
right, an honest abhorrence of the wrong and the bad. 
What may not be hoped from a Presidency begun 
under such auspicious omens, and supported at the 
start by such a host of consenting and appreciative 
adherents as this which now surrounds you ? The 
work, from this day onward, must dilate and grow. 
You are to direct that growth. May you now go 
forth In the strength of powers higher than those of 
this mortal sphere, and may the chapter In our his- 
tory, to be penned by your hand, be among the 
brightest and best in our annals ! 



THE INSTALLATION 

By the Hon. HAMILTON FISH, LL.D., 
Chairman of the Board of Trustees. 

Doctor Low : 

It is with much satisfaction and confidence, that I 
have now to discharge the ministerial and ceremonial 
duty which falls to me, on this occasion, as the Chair- 
man of the Trustees of Columbia College. 

I am to deliver to you a copy of the Charter of 
the College, to whose head you have been chosen. 
It defines the extent and the limitations of the powers 
of the Trustees, as well as of the President. 

Further — I am, by authority, and in the name of the 
Trustees, to place in your custody, while you remain 
its President, these keys of the College, in testimony 
of the high charge, and responsibility placed in you, 
as such President, and of your duty to guard and pro- 
tect the property, and the interests of the College, and 
to maintain order and discipline within its precincts. 

It now remains only for me to congratulate both 
you and the College on your election to the Presi- 
dency, and, in the name of the Trustees, to present 
you to this vast assemblage ; to our distinguished 
Guests and Friends present and honoring this occa- 
sion ; to our Professors and other Instructors ; to our 
Students of both sexes ; to our Alumni ; as the duly 
elected and installed President of Columbia College. 

23 



PRESIDENT LOW'S REPLY TO THE ADDRESS 
ON THE PART OF THE TRUSTEES. 

Mr. Chairman, Reverend Sir, a7zd Gentlemen of the 

Trustees : 

Reverently, as one who recognizes the importance 
of the work, I accept the charge you have committed 
to my care. Enthusiastically, as one who believes in 
the greatness of its possibilities, I give myself to it. 
Loyally, as becomes one of her own sons, I will serve 
Alma Mater with every power that I have. It is to 
me an inspiring thought that the old College had been 
doing her glorious work for a century before I was 
born. The vision of the centuries to come to be 
blessed by her labors will never be absent from my 
mind. This vision will give dignity and solemnity 
to every act. It is as though in the life of the College 
our own lives were to be prolonged like those of the 
patriarchs of old, so that we can recognize distinctly 
the direct bearing of that which we do to-day upon 
conditions that are to exist long after we are gone. 
You have spoken, sir, of the installation of my two 
immediate predecessors. It is interesting to reflect 
that the terms of service of these two distinguished 
men cover a period longer than my whole life. I had 
not yet come to college when Dr. Barnard entered 
upon his illustrious career as Columbia's President. 
In 1864, when Dr. Barnard began his labors here, 

24 



THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY TO THE TRUSTEES. 2$ 

Columbia College was but the skeleton of the fair 
institution which to-day is committed to my care. 
Since the world began, men have labored and others 
have entered into the fruit of their labors. I gladly 
recognize for myself, and for all who love Columbia, 
the invaluable services rendered to the College by my 
great predecessor. He came to a college having an 
Undergraduate Department of i66 students, having a 
Law School of 169 students, and having a School of 
Mines in embryo, about to begin its work in the 
basement of the old college building. The relation 
of the School of Medicine, or the College of Physicians 
and Surgeons, to Columbia, was then, as now, a 
singular one. It is by law the medical school of 
Columbia College, and its degrees bear the signature 
of Columbia's President, but it has its own Board of 
Trustees, and provides its own funds. Dr. Barnard 
lived to see the modest institution to which he came 
in 1864, transformed into the Columbia of the present 
time, splendid in its equipments, buoyant in courage, 
and full of anticipations of a destiny worthy of its 
location in the great American metropolis. The 
undergraduate department has doubled in size since 
1864. It has more than doubled the facilities which 
it offers to those who come to it as students. I 
scarcely recognize even the College of 1870 in the 
institution which I visit to-day. Many familiar faces 
greet me still ; men whom I learned to honor then, 
and whose friendship and confidence I cherish now as 
among the greatest of my own honors ; but the 
buildings in which they teach, and the facilities at 
their command for teaching, are improved almost 
beyond description. The requirements for admission 



26 INSTALLA TION OF PRESIDENT LO W. 

have been raised, the course has been enlarged, and 
the opportunities for varied instruction have been 
greatly increased. The Law School has trebled its 
numbers, and, at the same time, enlarged its course. 
The able and distinguished man who came to Colum- 
bia as the first head of the Law School is at its head 
still, and gives to it the unique reputation among the 
law schools of the land of his own eminent and illus- 
trious name. Professor Dwight may reflect, with 
confidence, that the influence and importance of the 
school, to which he has given so many years of his 
life, will be enduring. It shall not last so long, how- 
ever, that what it owes to him will be forgotten. 

The School of Mines, which Dr. Barnard opened 
in the basement of the old building, he left in posses- 
sion of the largest quarters upon the College block. 
The historic name, the School of Mines, covers its 
manifold activity still, but it long ago became, in 
fact, a school of applied science. Beside fitting men 
to be mining engineers, it has courses in civil engi- 
neering, metallurgy, geology, analytical and applied 
chemistry, architecture, sanitary engineering, and 
electrical engineering. In all these departments it 
challenges comparison with the best work done in 
the country. It is a name to conjure with for a man 
who holds its degree. Beside the development of 
these existing schools, there has been added to them 
the School of Political Science, to meet the well 
recognized need for training in social and economic 
and constitutional questions. I was pleased to be 
told, the other day, in another city, by a man well 
competent to judge, that there was no place in the 
country where any thing like so thorough an educa- 



THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY TO THE TRUSTEES. 2/ 

tion in these subjects could be had as in Columbia's 
School of Political Science. Added to all this is the 
marvellous growth and the complete transformation 
of the Library. The Library, which was in my day 
substantially of no use to the students of the College, 
has become an invaluable instrument both to the 
instructors and to the students, and also to the 
scholars of New York. A Library building delight- 
ful in all its arrangements has taken the place of the 
bare and unattractive room. The number of volumes 
at command has more than doubled ; the quality of 
current additions is believed to be exceptionally high ; 
the policy of the Library has been completely changed. 
There is no library in the city, I venture to think 
there is none in the country, where the student is 
more welcome, where the facilities granted him are 
so great. No part of the college system is more 
liberally supported or more generously dealt with, 
for it is recognized to be a laboratory of all the 
departments of the College. Changes such as these 
imply three things : they imply an increase of 
resources, wise leadership, and generous support on 
the part of the Trustees. Dr. Barnard once told me, 
while I was still in College, that prior to 1867 there 
had not been a year, with a single exception, for 
many years, when Columbia had not spent more than 
its income. I apprehend that such a statement comes 
like a surprise to the ears of New York. What it 
cost the College, the efforts it was obliged to make to 
retain the property from which it now receives its 
endowments and to meet the heavy assessments for 
improvements, while the income from the property 
was based upon rentals fixed in the distant past, none 



28 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 

but the Trustees will ever know. It is worth while to 
point out that substantially all the growth which I 
have indicated has been made since 1867, through 
the fallinof in of leases that matured about that time. 
The same causes have led to similar conditions again, 
of late years, and the College is only now once more 
reaching the point where it can command still further 
growth. It is barely two years since it found its 
way out of embarrassments of the most serious char- 
acter. In this interval of less than two years the Col- 
lege has already established a course of electrical 
engineering, has erected a building for it, and is now 
equipping it, and has added a third year to the 
course in the Law School, making proper provision 
for the increased instruction. It is not to be doubted 
that, just as before, the College will expand its useful- 
ness as rapidly as it can do so wisely up to the full 
limit of its means. As to the leadership of Dr. Bar- 
nard I need not enlarge further. He is recognized 
by all to have been one of the most profoundly 
learned men on this side of the Atlantic. He 
brought to the service of the College a single pur- 
pose and a devotion that was complete. To the day 
of his death he remained one of the most progressive 
spirits of our time. With this learning, this devotion, 
this progressiveness, Dr. Barnard served Columbia 
for a quarter of a century. His achievements are 
recorded in the archives of the College and in the 
educational history of the country. His memory is 
enshrined in the hearts of all who love Columbia 
both far and near. I named a third element as con- 
tributing to the progress of these last twenty-five 
years. Without the support of the Trustees none of 



THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY TO THE TRUSTEES. 2g 

these improvements could have been made. The 
president of a college may plan ever so wisely ; he 
may devote himself to its service with an energy and 
devotion that know no fatigue, but unless the trustees 
of the college give him a glad and hearty support his 
best efforts will be of little avail. It makes no small 
part of the courage which has led me to undertake 
the duties to which you have called me, that I come 
to this position as one of your own body, chosen, as 
your spokesman has said, after mature considera- 
tion, with a full knowledge of my spirit and a large 
acquaintance with ijiy views. Such an one may rea- 
sonably expect from the Trustees the heartiest co- 
operation and support. Had I doubted whether I 
should receive these, nothing could have induced me to 
accept the obligations of this day. But it is my good- 
fortune to know the Trustees as well as they know 
me, and as a fruit of this knowledge I am here. I 
thank you for the confidence expressed in me in your 
words. I thank you for the still more conspicuous 
evidence of confidence involved in my election ; I 
pledge you my most earnest efforts to justify that 
confidence and to merit your support. In the full 
assurance that we are animated by a common pur- 
pose to maintain inviolate the trust that has come to 
us from the past, by a common desire to make the 
College serve our own day and generation to the full 
measure of our opportunity, by a common hope that 
we may plan wisely and build on the old foundations 
strongly for those who are to come after us, I am 
ready now to enter upon my new work. 



ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF ALL THE FACULTIES 

BY 

Prof. HENRY DRISLER, LL.D. 

President Low : 

Chosen by the united Faculties of Columbia Col- 
lege as their representative on this most interesting 
and memorable occasion, I greet you as our President 
with most hearty words of welcome. Among the 
many causes of our congratulations on your accession 
to the Presidency, not the least is the fact that the 
Trustees of the College, after long and careful con- 
sideration, found no one so worthy of the high and 
responsible office as one of her own sons. Forty 
years have passed since this post of honor has been 
held by a son of Alma Mater. This is not said in 
derogation of the distinguished and excellent men 
who have filled this position ; on the contrary, we 
regard their learning, their zeal, their labors for the 
advancement of the College, with respect and admi- 
ration. We merely point to the fact that Columbia 
has shown in past years her great liberality and free- 
dom from all narrow exclusiveness. The Charter 
and the Statutes devolve upon the President exten- 
sive powers and great responsibility ; they also consti- 
tute the Faculties advisory councils, " to assist the 
President in the government and education of the 

30 



ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE FACULTIES. 3 1 

Students belonging to the (said) College." To us, 
therefore, the selection of a (new) President must 
naturally be a matter of serious import. Not alone 
the institutions of different nations have methods and 
usages which constitute, as it were, their intellectual 
atmosphere, but in the same nation in an institution 
of long standing its traditions become crystallized, 
and there arises an unwTitten law which is of bindinsf 
force. Educational institutions are conservative in 
their character; and, while admitting genuine re- 
forms or modifications, require that those reforms 
should be made only after calm and careful delibera- 
tion. A stranger to our traditions, therefore, must 
make his way by slow degrees, and will need time 
to accommodate himself to new conditions and secure 
the confidence of new counsellors. In the present 
case no such reserve, no such process, is necessary. 
To you, Mr. President, a loyal son of Alma Mater, 
trained under her teaching, imbibing her traditions, 
accepting the foundation principles of her existence, 
as expressed in her Charter, " for the instruction of 
youth in the learned languages and the liberal arts 
and sciences," we can, and we do, unhesitatingly 
pledge our implicit confidence and our loyal sup- 
port. Your entrance upon the administration of her 
affairs at this most important crisis in the develop- 
ment of our College system seems but the culmina- 
tion of a long but unconscious preparation. Strong 
attachment to the studies of your youth, not laid aside 
in maturer years, but cherished amid the pressing 
cares of an active live, the business habits formed in 
the management of extensive commercial enterprises, 
earnest participation in the promotion of good mor- 



32 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 

als and religion, the discharge with rare fidelity and 
general acceptance of the duties of the administra- 
tion of a great city, combined with a calm judgment 
free from bias, have shown you possessed of very 
many, if not all, of the essential qualities of a suc- 
cessful executive officer. We therefore look to you 
with confident reliance on your impartial treatment 
of the important questions that will, in the near future, 
present themselves for your advice and co-operation. 
The members of the several Faculties, as well as the 
educated public, will expect of you, while maintaining 
the long-tried and approved disciplinary studies that 
form the basis of the College course, in conjunction 
with the Trustees also to have ever in view the due, 
deliberate, and systematic development of new de- 
partments of study to meet the ever increasing and 
diverging demands of modern life. Out of the old 
College have grown already a well-established and 
highly successful School of Law, and School of Mines ; 
of later growth, but of increasing importance and wide 
usefulness, has followed a School of Political Science ; 
other schools and departments of study are taking 
shape and only waiting the fitting moment to spring, 
like Minerva from the head of Jupiter, ready armed 
and equipped for active service. These matters be- 
long in their authorization to the Trustees and the 
President, to us in their development and applica- 
tion. In this development and application, it will be 
our pleasure as well as our duty to render you all aid 
and encouragement in our several relations. You 
will find each Faculty, and every member of each 
Faculty, ready and eager to aid in building up an in- 
stitution such as may be an honor to the great city 



ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE FACULTIES. 33 

in which is its home and where must be its sphere of 
usefulness. More personal than the relation of coun- 
sellors will be the associations in friendly and social 
intercourse. In the smaller cities and towns, the 
University or College gives the tone to society, and 
its celebrations are the great events of each recurring 
season. In our great commercial city, the College 
influence is too slightly felt. We look to you to 
bring the College into closer relations with the life 
of this community. Already many learned societies 
cluster around it, and find hospitable accommodation 
within its walls. The liberal and thoughtful action 
of our Trustees provides each year for the benefit 
and instruction of the general public, who cannot 
avail themselves of its more serious studies, lectures 
on topics of literature, science, and philosophy. As 
the administrator of this liberality, you will have the 
opportunity and the power to extend the influence 
and usefulness of the College throughout the com- 
munity in ever widening circles. 

To you, Mr. President, who now enter upon your 
duties with the full confidence of the Trustees, with 
the loyal support of all the Faculties of the College, 
and with the enthusiastic approval of the Alumni, in 
the name of my colleagues and as their representa- 
tive, and for myself personally, I renew the words of 
welcome, and wish for you a long, honorable, and 
successful administration. 



ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF ALL THE ALUMNI 

BY 

FREDERIC R. COUDERT, LL.D. 

And now, Mr. President, come the Alumni to add 
their greeting, to testify their joy, and^to tender 
their counsel. This last and most important function 
they could not well omit, lest they fail in their duty to 
you and especially to themselves. For we are not 
unmindful that it has always been the pride of a good 
judge to amplify his own jurisdiction, and the lauda- 
ble effort of every body of men to assert their power 
and extend their authority. Whatever else we fail in 
to-day, we shall not be remiss or hesitating, when we 
advance the claims of the Alumni, to impress upon 
you at one and the same time the value of their 
counsel and the necessity of their existence. 

The Alumni of Columbia stand, in relation to the 
governing powers, much as the Third Estate of 
France did to the other two, viz., the Clergy and 
the Nobility ; both these orders being with us largely 
and well represented by the Trustees and the Faculty, 
in whose ranks may be found worthy members of the 
sacred profession, quite competent by their merit to 
leaven even a larger mass of laymen. The direction 
of Columbia's policy, the administration of her 
finances, a wise and patient concern for her moral 

34 



ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE ALUMNI. 35 

welfare, the judicious appropriation of whatever may 
be useful in the new devices that agitate our educa- 
tional world — all these things have been committed 
to and dealt with by our two estates. As to this, our 
Third Estate, a prudent disinclination to indulge in 
boldness of speech prevents my claiming what was 
claimed for that subdivision of the French nation. 
" What is the Third Estate ?" once cried a member of 
that body ; " Nothing ! What ought it to be ? Every 
thing ! " Without venturing in this presence to echo 
the sentiment, even while quoting the language of 
this outspoken patriot, I may be pardoned when I 
look about me with exultation and find strong 
grounds for indulgence in something much akin to 
glorification. You, sir, are one of Columbia's hon- 
ored and favorite children — an Alumnus who always 
took a just pride in the title. The learned Professor 
who has just addressed us, and who has given us the 
best years of his useful life, belongs to Columbia's 
household and family. In our Board of Trustees the 
intelligence and care and wisdom of Columbia's chil- 
dren are predominant and most precious factors. 
Never before, I think, in her history has Columbia 
been so thoroughly herself as she is to-day. She may 
proudly defy all laws, wise or unwise, which embarrass 
the introduction of learning from abroad and prohibit 
the importation of foreign intellect by contract. 
Other institutions may suffer, but she, with her 
Alumni, is self-supporting — in that sense at least. 
Nor can it with truth be said that the accident of 
personal distinction accounts for the presence of our 
Alumni in these high places. We need no argument 
based upon exceptions to prove that Columbia has at 



36 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 

her back more than Ulysses or any dozen heroes — a 
compact, loyal, affectionate body of intelligent and 
self-respecting men to honor and to serve her. That 
she has these, and that they stand high on the roll of 
our city's and our country's most faithful servants, no 
man knows, sir, better than yourself. And these all 
stand by your side, loyal friends to applaud and 
rejoice when you shall have won great honor for 
yourself by doing full justice to her. 

But lest my language should create a wrong im- 
pression, let me add that the great distinction which 
Columbia has bestowed upon you is not the result of 
any narrow pride in her own children. You have 
been selected for the highest honor within her gift 
because of her full confidence in your capacity to do 
all that she expects from you. In proportion to the 
value of the gift shall be the return demanded ; she 
will exact full measure, to overflowing ; she will ex- 
pect all that your record teaches that she may 
demand : that your brain shall work and your heart 
shall beat for her and her glory, that you will respond 
to the inspiration of your surroundings, to the tra- 
ditions that will follow you at every step, to the 
eloquent admonitions of those who have gone before, 
and especially, as you take the seat so honorably 
filled for a quarter of a century, that you will resolve 
with generous ardor to follow him who filled it before 
you, not "with long interval and unequal steps," but 
with such earnestness of pursuit that the end of his 
career will prove to be but the beginning of a new 
one, destined, let us all hope, with the blessing of 
Providence, to be as long and as honored and as 
splendid in its results as his own. Else were the 



ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE ALUMNI. 37 

promise of fruition from his great service to be 
broken before maturity. The past is not secure 
unless adopted, continued, and excelled by the future. 
That you are one of us in the best sense of the 
word adds much to our confidence. That Columbia 
has found a fitting successor for her great leader 
without crossing the boundaries of her own jurisdic- 
tion is a fact not without its bearing on the problems 
that she will have to deal with and to solve. These 
problems may seem many and arduous, but they will 
be shorn of their terror if you succeed in satisfying 
the citizen of New York that he is bound to Columbia 
by ties that he has no right to ignore and no power 
to break. Teach him, we pray you, that if there is 
any subject upon which he may well indulge in civic 
pride, it is the College that has worked so modestly 
and yet efficiently to train the men about him for 
every duty of life. Tell him, and impress upon him, 
if you may, that the glamour of distance, while it 
lights up with artistic beauty objects in the physical 
world, and conceals defects by suppressing them, 
does not add to the beauty of institutions whose 
excellence belongs to the moral order. Warn him 
against the delusive charms of a lovely mirage, 
against the fallacy which clothes the unknown with 
splendor, while the virtues of that which we possess 
become dwarfed by proximity and possession. It is 
not strange, perhaps, that our men of New York 
should seek far from home for that which they may 
find at hand. That is the story of every day and of 
every age. It is the key of much that would other- 
wise be unintelligible. Why do men change their 
sky when they cannot change their mind or heart ? 



38 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 

why do they, which is much more to our purpose, 
forget that Columbia is at their door, and yet fill the 
halls of other colleges with their sons — colleges great 
and good, no doubt, but possessing, we venture to 
think, no real claim to preference over your own 
Alma Mater. We at least may be pardoned for 
thinking that no paramount title exists in their 
favor ; none, perhaps, other than that which a glow- 
ing fancy paints, which Rumor, growing with dis- 
tance, boldly asserts, and which rests upon no securer 
foundation than the strange belief that the disruption 
of family ties is the first step to intellectual advance- 
ment. If you are at a loss how to impress upon the 
citizen of New York these teachings and warnings, 
turn to your old Horace, the universal medicine man 
in whose pharmacopoeia you will find a remedy for 
every ill that may be cured by common-sense and 
sound philosophy ; tell our citizens what he says to 
his friend Bullatius, the wanderer. He had visited 
Chios and Samos and Lesbos and lovely Mitylene, 
and yet the poet laughs at him for his pains, and 
chides him for his restlessness : "What you seek is 
herCy here at home, within your reach ; quod petis, hie 
est . , . animus si te non dejieit esquttsj' that is, 
if you have any judgment worth speaking of. Should 
they stubbornly refuse to listen to Horace, they are 
indeed far gone, and I must leave you to such devices 
as your experience of men, acquired in practical 
statesmanship, may suggest. 

Let me congratulate you upon the auspicious time 
which marks the beginning of your career as Colum- 
bia's President. The days of doubt and anxiety are 
past ; success has ceased to be a question. In friendly 



ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE ALUMNI. 39 

rivalry for the front rank with her brilliant sisters, she 
occupies by common consent a most honorable place. 
She feels that with them she may share the great 
privilege of preparing the generations of the future to 
discharge all the duties of the citizen ; that she is 
doing and will do her part towards preserving the 
Republic. Upon the graduates of Columbia and 
Harvard and Yale and Princeton and others the suc- 
cess of our phenomenal experiment of governing our- 
selves must largely depend. General education, the 
most potent agent in our civilization, has removed old 
difficulties, but created new ones by enlarging the 
boundaries of our mental activities and opening new 
territories for the pioneers in the scientific and politi- 
cal world. There must be among us men who have 
the leisure to study, the brain to acquire, the oppor- 
tunity to advance ; who have the will, the ability, the 
learning, the equipoise that make the leaders, and 
they will be found to a great extent among college 
graduates. The delusion is disappearing that the 
science of government may be acquired by con- 
tagion ; the folly of trusting men upon their own 
statement of their own value has been ascertained by 
experience. Political science is not to be learned in 
a tavern and the experience of the past may not be 
disregarded without peril. 

Even the superstition that a knowledge of letters 
is inconsistent with a proper performance of public 
duties, or that it constitutes an impediment to serious 
business, has already reached its highest point and is 
in a condition of decline. 

Nor will you fail to rejoice in the good-fortune 
which enables you to broaden the usefulness of Co- 



40 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 

lumbia. An auspicious day has dawned upon our 
city, since woman may claim, if she will, equal oppor- 
tunity with man to drink at the fountain of knowledge, 
and to fit herself by study and preparation for the en- 
joyment of those literary and scientific pursuits which 
constitute the surest, safest, and most constant of all 
the charms of refined life. In spite of History, which 
proclaims on so many of its pages her ability to in- 
struct and delight the world, the indifference or 
selfishness of man had closed the doors of the Temple 
of Learning against her. Let Barnard College under 
your wise guidance stand henceforth as a protest 
against narrow intolerance, as a demonstration of 
woman's fitness for all that is good, and as a living 
proof that Columbia has turned her face to the light 
and thrown off the impedimenta of senseless prejudice. 
But I must stop — lest you do, what perhaps you 
have already done in your mind — namely, resort to 
Horace for consolation. I can give you the appropri- 
ate quotation, the one that you will find most apt ; it 
is the witch's prophecy that he heard when a boy : 
" This child neither shall cruel poison, nor hostile 
• sword, nor gout, nor pleurisy, nor cough destroy ; a 
talker shall one day demolish him ; if he is wise let 
him avoid talkative men as soon as he comes to man's 
estate." 

Hunc neqtie dira venena, nee hostis auferet ensis, 
Nee laterum dolor, aut tusszs, nee tarda podagra ; 
Garrtilus mine qua7ido eonsumet cunqtte ; loquaces, 
St sapiet, vitet simtil atque adoleverit cstas. 

Your life is too precious, sir, to be imperilled by 
farther speech. I forbear, and close with a renewed 
pledge of cordial and affectionate suppport from your 
brethren the Alumni. 



ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF ALL THE STUDENTS 

PRESENTED, BY PERMISSION, THROUGH THE CHAIRMAN OF THEIR 

COMMITTEE. 

To the Hon. Seth Low, LL.D., President of Columbia 
College : 

The students of Columbia College, in all its Schools 
and Departments, unite in welcoming you as their 
President. Your name has long been honored and 
beloved in the halls of the University over which you 
have now been called to preside. For nearly a score 
of years Columbia students have found in your ex- 
ample an inspiration, and in the record of your life a 
motive to earnest, unselfish, and enthusiastic endeavor. 

The loyal and steady devotion which you have 
manifested toward vour Alma Mater, both in the 
Association of the Alumni and on the Board of Trus- 
tees, has endeared you to the hearts of all Columbia 
men, and claims from us, as children of the same 
mother, that gratitude and respect the expression of 
which we now desire to convey to you. 

Your administration as Mayor of Brooklyn estab- 
lishes in us the confidence that your government here 
will be marked by wisdom, fairness, and progress. 
We take additional pleasure in the belief that the 
comparatively early age at which you have been 
called to this place of executive government, and 
your intimate identification with the varied interests 

41 



42 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 

of college life, will cause us to find in you one who 
sympathizes fully with the thought and action of the 
undergraduate. 

Columbia's history is one of which we may well be 
proud. Her influence in the development of our civic 
and national life has been marked. We rejoice in 
the fame and honor won by her Alumni, and in the 
power which, through them, she wields in the com- 
munity. Among the students of the present time, 
college spirit is more intense than ever before. Ac- 
companied, as this is, by a hearty unanimity in all 
efforts to advance Columbia's standards, it argues 
well for the rapid advancement and development of 
the College in the near future. 

The true glory of a college consists not in the ex- 
tent of its domain, nor yet in the beauty of its walls, 
but rather in the worth and character of its men ; 
and in the lives trained here for useful work and ser- 
vice your administration will find its highest reward. 
In all your efforts for the welfare and upbuilding of 
the College we ask you to rely upon the heartfelt and 
unswerving loyalty of the whole student body. 

Respectfully, 
Thornton Bancroft Penfield, '90, School of Arts, 

Chair')na7t. 
Samuel Wakeman Andrews, Jr., '90, School of Mines, 

Secretary. 
Victor Mapes, '91, School of Arts. 
Rolla Barnum Watson, '91, School of Mines. 
Francis Herbert Brownell, '91, School of Law. 
Charles White Trippe, '92, School of Arts. 
Dudley Arthur Van Ingen, '92, School of Mines. 
Arthur Outram Sherman, '92, School of Law. 
Will Whyland, '93, School of Arts. 
Richard Bayley Post, Jr., '93, School of Mines. 

Committee. 



PRESIDENT LOW'S REPLY TO THE FACULTIES, 
THE ALUMNI, AND THE STUDENTS. 

Gentlemen of the Faculties and Gentlemen of the 
Alumni: 

I thank you for your cordial welcome to me as the 
President of Columbia. If the Trustees furnish the 
sinews for our work and give a general direction to 
it, the Faculties in reality make the College, and the 
Alumni certify to its value. In the best view, I think, 
we all belong to the Alumni rather than they to us. I 
esteem it one of the fortunate incidents connected 
with my Presidency, that I am assured in advance of 
their hearty support. In replying to the Faculties, I 
must needs say, sir, if you will allow me, first of all, a 
few words to yourself, who have spoken on their 
behalf. The friendship which began between us in 
our old relation of professor and student most happily 
has been an unbroken one. As I sat at your feet in 
college, so I have not ceased to learn from you those 
finer lessons which are taught by an upright and 
noble character. For more than forty years you have 
served Columbia faithfully and well. I like to think 
that in a certain sense I receive the Presidency at 
your hands. It comes to me largely, as I feel it, the 
gracious gift from age to youth, bearing with it for 
this reason a precious benediction and a large inspira- 
tion. The Faculties will appreciate, that as to the 

43 



44 INSTALLATION' OF PRESIDENT LOW. 

technical side of their work I must be for a long time 
a learner. I do indeed bring to your councils two 
new and different points of view, both of which may 
be valuable in the work we shall have to do together. 
I shall bring into your meetings the experience of a 
man of affairs and the point of view of the Trustees. 
I appreciate thoroughly the importance of the ques- 
tions that are awaiting the new order of things for 
determination. To these questions I can bring no 
better equipment than an open mind. I rely upon 
your patience and forbearance with me if matters 
which to you appear plain and simple on my part 
demand study and thought. I can promise you my 
most earnest efforts to acquaint myself promptly with 
the condition and needs of the College in all its 
parts. You will not expect me to-day to outline a 
policy. Were I to have a policy, under existing con- 
ditions, it would seem an evidence of unfitness for my 
post. Two points appear to me essential to the 
securing of the best results. We must conceive of 
the College as a single institution. In my view its 
various schools are as much integral parts of the 
College as the undergraduate department itself. This 
is fundamental, because, unless we have this view, it 
is impossible to make the different parts work to- 
gether to the best advantage toward common ends. 
This suggestion is entirely consistent, in my mind, 
with a belief that the School of Arts, the historic 
side of the College, is the foundation of the whole. I 
believe in doing better than ever, if we can, the work 
that the College has been doing from the beginning. 
But I see no reason why this work should not be so 
done as to co-operate with the different schools in the 



THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY TO THE FACULTIES, ETC. 45 

work which they propose to do. Whatever can be 
made to grow out of the old root I should expect to 
be strong and sound. But I do not believe in de- 
stroying the old foundation in order to rest a new 
structure upon an uncertain base. While I say this 
I am in entire sympathy with the desire to see the 
College continue its development into a complete 
University adapted to the largest possible service to 
American needs. I hold myself open to conviction 
as to all details. I indicate simply what seems to me 
a fundamental condition of the problem. The other 
point which to my mind appears of vital consequence 
is a frank recognition of the fact that all parts of the 
work which the College has to do are honorable and 
worthy of our best service. Some men have the gift 
of leading students in research. Others have the gift 
of instruction, which is needed in the disciplinary 
work. It will be fatal to the best results if all the 
members of our Faculties wish to do either one rather 
than the other. Let us dispose our forces in such a 
way that each man shall have that kind of work to do 
which he is fitted for, and let each regard the other as 
employed in an equally honorable way as himself. 

I hope every man In the Faculties looks upon his 
own department as the most important one in the 
College. Of course the President may not hold this 
view. His duty is specially to observe and maintain 
the proportion of things. I cannot therefore promise 
to each of you that every thing which you wish will 
command my support ; but this I can promise to each 
and every one of you : that, in your efforts to make 
your own department conform to your highest ideal, 
you shall have my sympathy completely. You will 



46 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 

never feel, I trust, that you can trouble me by calling 
my attention to any matter which seems to you of 
consequence to the College. With your permission, 
I shall call on each of you in the same spirit. Acting 
thus together, we may reasonably anticipate, I think, 
a happy outcome of our labors. The Alumni of the 
College are those to whom we look specially for sup- 
port in the community. It is not enough for a col- 
lege to have large endowments. It must have living 
friends. The gifts of the past exhaust themselves. 
The bounties of the present should run in a perpetual 
stream. For the last few years the Trustees have 
sent to every Alumnus whose address was known an 
abstract of the President's report and a copy of the 
Treasurer's statement. It shall not be my fault if the 
Alumni in the future are not kept well informed as to 
the plans and hopes and doings of Alma Mater. 
They can bring to our aid, if they will, invaluable 
suggestions from their vantage-ground of experience. 
As there are none who have greater pride in the 
College, so there are none to whom the College 
should be able to turn with greater assurance of help. 
Columbia College, in my view, has an unequalled op- 
portunity by reason of its position in the city of New 
York. Its position here confronts it also with its special 
difficulties. The city is a great city, and it is not easy 
for any institution to make itself powerfully felt in so 
large a community. Nevertheless, gentlemen of the 
Alumni, that is precisely what we have to do. Much 
will depend, no doubt, on the attitude of the Trustees 
and the administration of the College. But both will 
fail unless the Alumni, entering into the life of the 
community as they do in a thousand ways, are thought- 



THE PRESIDENT'S REPLY TO THE FACULTIES, ETC. 47 

ful for the good name of the College at all times. As 
has been said, it is forty years since an Alumnus of 
the College occupied the President's office. I am 
glad to believe that, in turning to my fellow-Alumni 
for counsel and support, I shall receive a glad and 
hearty response. I rejoice with you, sir, that in Bar- 
nard College Columbia has found a way in which she 
can with heartiness co-operate in advancing the higher 
education of women. Barnard College is governed, 
as you know, by its own trustees, and it is wholly 
dependent on the community for its support. But 
Columbia does undertake to shape its curriculum, to 
see that its standards are maintained, and to give to 
its graduates the recognition of a Columbia degree. 
For its name's sake and for its work's sake Barnard 
College may rest assured of my hearty and willing 
help. Gentleman of the Faculties and gentlemen of 
the Alumni, I thank you again for your warm welcome. 
Students of Columbia, I thank you for the warm 
welcome you have extended to me as the President 
of the College. No incident of the day is more grati- 
fying to me. I hope you will find me in sympathy 
with you in every matter which relates to your happi- 
ness as well as to your intellectual progress. Nothing 
which concerns you shall be foreign to me. I pledge 
you my best efforts to do every thing in my power to 
make your student days a bright and happy chapter 
in your lives. Again I thank you for your hearty 
welcome. 



PRESIDENT LOW'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

Mr. ChaiT'inan, Ladies and Gentlemen, Students of 
Columbia : 

In this majestic and historic city we are met to- 
gether at the call of Columbia College. No institu- 
tion in New York intertwines itself more closely with 
the city's history and the city's glory. George II. 
was still alive when, in 1754, the College had its 
beginnings in a New York numbering about thirteen 
thousand souls, of whom more than two thousand 
were held as slaves. The city and the College have 
grown together, until the College to-day, with its 
various schools, is among the foremost in the land. 
In the Revolutionary period the College, as repre- 
sented by its students and its graduates, was instinct 
with patriotism. Its name, Columbia, given to it to 
take the place of King's College, is not an accident. 
It was the natural selection for the Alma Mater of 
Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. Yet these men, 
if most conspicuous, were not singular among their 
college friends in their attachment to the American 
cause. The students of the College, like college stu- 
dents everywhere, had imbibed the spirit of liberty in 
the free air which men must breathe who follow after 
truth. All men know what services Hamilton ren- 
dered to the little republic which started on its 
marvellous career in this city a century ago. What 

48 



THE PRESIDENT'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 49 

fitter gift could Columbia have made to New York, or 
New York to the nation, than the unequalled Minister 
of Finance whom Washington appointed the first 
Secretary of the Treasury ? As beneath the touch of 
Midas all things turned into gold, so beneath the 
skilful touch of Hamilton the nation converted into 
power resources which had been valueless. But the 
great minister did more than that. He made good 
the credit of the nation, and the great republic's 
credit has stood unshaken since, not so much because 
of our fabulous resources as because the high standard 
of good faith of which Hamilton set the example has 
been uniformly maintained. 

To-morrow, in this historic city in which the gov- 
ernment began, there is to be celebrated the centen- 
nial of the Supreme Court of the United States. To 
this great court, of which all Americans are proud, 
Columbia College gave its first chief-justice in the 
person of John Jay. Columbia College is worthily 
represented in the same court to-day in the person 
of Mr. Justice Blatchford. I like to think of John 
Jay that he set the standard to which, in point of 
character, all Columbia men should strive to attain. 
It was Daniel Webster who said of him : " When 
the spotless ermine of the judicial robe fell on John 
Jay it touched nothing less spotless than itself!" 
So we are not surprised to learn that the first 
strong impulse toward the emancipation of slaves 
in the State of New York came from John Jay. The 
first legislative act looking to the abolition of slavery 
in this State was passed while Jay was Governor, at 
his instance, and received his signature. Thus Co- 
lumbia's name is linked forever in the annals of the 



50 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 

Empire State with this high act of justice and of 
righteousness. 

At this time, 1795, and for many years there- 
after, the advantages of New York as a commercial 
centre were Hmited to her incomparable harbor 
and to her unique position on these two great 
waterways, the one reaching far into the interior 
and the other giving her a second line of communica- 
tion with the ocean by way of an inland sea, and 
both bringing deep water close to her shores. It is 
interesting to read that so late as 1 769 it was consid- 
ered a rash prediction that New York might one day 
equal Newport, R. I., as a commercial city. Before 
the beginning of this century New York had indeed 
stepped into the first place, but she was hard pressed 
by Philadelphia, and even by Baltimore. It was a 
son of Columbia College, DeWitt Clinton, who made 
New York's diadem secure. The statesmanship which 
opened across the State of New York a highway to 
the West, a highway for enterprise, and courage, and 
commerce, and civilization, and Christianity, the 
statesmanship which thus made largely tributary to 
this city the abounding plenteousness of that illimita- 
ble region, — this statesmanship received its earliest 
development in Columbia's halls. Springing naturally 
out of the city's maritime advantages, mightily rein- 
forced as these were by Clinton's great work, there 
grew up in New York an ocean commerce which 
drew to the city the ships of all the world. By 1 860 
a large proportion of this commerce was carried on 
in American bottoms. The New York and Liver- 
pool liner and the New York clipper acknowledged 
no superiors on the broad seas. Then came the 



THE PRESIDENT'S IN A UGURAL ADDRESS. 5 I 

Civil War, and these stately merchant fleets were 
decimated by Confederate cruisers fitted out in 
foreign ports. At this juncture another son of Co- 
lumbia College, the venerable Hamilton Fish, for 
many years, and happily still, the revered Chairman 
of the Trustees of the College, as Secretary of State 
of the United States, negotiated the treaty of Wash- 
ington, under which were adjudicated without an 
appeal to arms our righteous claims for the de- 
struction of this merchant marine. Again I ask, what 
more fitting contribution could Columbia have made 
to New York in these later times, or New York to 
the nation, than the sturdy statesman whose masterful 
diplomacy brought this question within the range of 
peaceable settlement ? For the first time in history, a 
dispute so formidable between two nations of the first 
rank was settled without a war. The city and the 
College together produced the temper which met the 
opportunity and the need with such brilliant success. 
It thus appears that the distinguished services of 
Columbia's sons have covered the whole period of the 
College life. 

I like to recall how frequently these services have 
been chacteristic of the essential life of the city. It 
is largely true of all of them that the College and the 
city have combined together to produce the fine 
result. I have chosen conspicuous names, but they are 
only the choice sheaves of a harvest which has been 
perennial. Consider for a moment the significance 
to the College of the great city about it. First of all, 
it means for every one of us that there is no such 
thing as the world of letters apart from the world of 
men. There are such things, undoubtedly, as most 



52 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 

unworldly scholars, men oftentimes " of whom the 
world is not worthy," but such scholars are never 
made except out of men who see humanity, as in a 
vision, ever beckoning to them from behind their 
books. The scholar without this vision is a pedant. 
He mistakes learning for an end in itself, instead of 
seeing that it is only a weapon in a wise man's hands. 
The city surrounds us all with a large and bracing 
atmosphere. Something of the breadth of view and 
feeling which travel gives, the cosmopolitan city may 
bestow upon those who study in it. Beware, young 
men, lest by its size and wealth and power it make 
you supercilious. Rather, by the spectacle which it 
displays of the variety of peoples and their varied 
gifts, let it make you large in your sympathies and 
lofty in your aspirations. It may become to you, if 
you will not hinder it, a liberal education in itself. I 
can think of no finer supplement to the liberal culture 
which the College aims to bestow than that which may 
come from mingling in a fearless fellowship with the 
many kinds of men to be met with in New York. The 
simple conditions on the student's part are a recogni- 
tion of inherent worth, wherever it may be found, 
and an open mind. The ends of the earth, then, will 
bring to you their contribution, and you shall come 
to see that this great city is full of inspiration to a 
man who would be noble. Think what it may do 
for the different types of men who ought to be found 
at all times within the College walls. Here is your 
man aiming to open his nature on every side into the 
broadest possible touch with his fellows. The study 
of the classics may do much for such a man. They 
give him the companionship of the great minds of 



THE PRESIDENT'S IN-AUGURAL ADDRESS. 53 

ancient times, and help him to reaHze that it always 
has been a glorious thing to be a man. They help 
him to see with a just perspective the claims of the 
present, and they illumine with a fascinating light the 
literature of all the times between and of our own day. 
But the real world is not to be found in books. That 
is peopled by men and women of living flesh and 
blood, and the great city can supply the human quality 
which the broad-minded man must not suffer himself 
to lack. There is a variety to life in this city, a 
vitality about it, and, withal, a sense of power, which, 
to my thought, are of inestimable value to the student 
whose desire it is to become a well-rounded man. 
For the young man who is seeking a professional or 
technical training I need not stop to point out the 
advantages the city offers. All men recognize them. 
There is but one New York on all this continent, 
and, for the purposes of technical and professional 
training, her location in New York supplements the 
work of Columbia with advantages not elsewhere to 
be had. So, also, I believe the great city will lend 
itself readily to the encouragement of profound re- 
search. As there is no solitude like that of a crowd, 
so there is no inspiration like it. And we may yet 
see the great thinkers and the great discoverers of 
our age the men of city breeding and of a city atmos- 
phere. A great man is apt to partake strongly of the 
habit of his times, and the tendency to-day sets so 
strongly toward cities on every hand that I do not 
expect to see great learning and profound scholarship 
exceptional as to that tendency. The city also may 
be made, to a considerable extent, a part of the uni- 
versity. All about us lie its galleries, its museums, 



54 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 

and its libraries. Best of all, here are its men, the 
most eminent in their calling in every walk of life. 
Let us bring these men in every possible way into 
vital touch with our work, and we shall see a uni- 
versity of which the whole country shall be proud. 
We Americans are accustomed to say that our greatest 
problems lie in the cities. These problems are to be 
found in New York, unquestionably, in their gravest 
forms. Is this fact without special meaning to you, 
young gentlemen, who are now getting your educa- 
tion in New York? From what quarter are the 
trained intellect and the consecrated purpose to come 
which are to grapple successfully with these problems 
in the coming time, if not out of New York itself, and 
out of the schools and colleges of New York ? I have 
tried to make you see that the conspicuous gifts which 
New York and Columbia have made to the nation 
have been singularly characteristic of New York's 
essential life. The well-ordered finances of the coun- 
try ; the Erie Canal, which did so much to develop 
New York, both the State and the city, and which 
developed in far larger measure the great West ; the 
peaceful settlement of the Alabama claims ; these are 
contributions to the national happiness and greatness 
which display, in a singular degree, the educational 
influence of the city upon the men trained in its 
midst. I do not claim for the city that it has every 
kind of advantage. Different locations, from an edu- 
cational point of view, have each their advantages 
and their disadvantages. But I do claim that an edu- 
cation in New York is likely to be of especial value 
to any man who wishes to be of service in meeting 
the great problems with which our cities confront the 



THE PRESIDENT'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 55 

country. Such an one, it seems to me, will appre- 
ciate much earlier in life what a great city's problems 
are. To him the atmosphere of a city will be a 
familiar thing, and he will know, if he is a wise man, 
that, though the powers of evil in a city are great, the 
powers of good are greater. 

Victor Hugo once said : " God suffers not the 
precious fruits of sorrow to grow upon a branch too 
weak to bear them." In the same way great tasks 
are set to Hercules, not to a weakling, and the great- 
ness of New York's problems is the truest measure of 
her strength. Some men, as they recognize how far 
short the city falls in a thousand ways of what it 
ought to be, and see the difficulties attending all 
efforts at improvement, are apt to say : " It is no use. 
Let us eat and drink, and after us comes the deluge." 
But let it not be so with you. No more spirit- 
stirring call ever sounded in the ears of a generation 
of young men than comes to the youth of New York 
and America in connection with the problems of this 
mighty city. Splendid beyond imagination in what it 
may be made to be, it grieves our pride and shocks 
our love so frequently in what it is. Columbia may 
bring to you all the learning of the ages, she may 
surround you with all the opportunities and privileges 
which the times will supply, but she will fail of her 
truest and best«work if she does not send you forth 
into the community earnest and patriotic men. I do 
not ask you to be old before your time ; but I do ask 
you to acquire, in your student days, a sense of the 
seriousness of life and an enthusiasm for noble living, 
which shall never desert you. All this, I think, the 
city means to the College. 



56 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 

Let us consider now what the College means to 
the city. The value of the College to New York 
is not to be measured by the services of her con- 
spicuous sons. Her chief and permanent value to 
the city lies in the constant witness she bears to 
the usefulness and the nobility of the intellectual 
life and in the work she is always doing to develop 
and uplift that life. Columbia College, college and 
university both, as she really is, holds aloft this 
ideal in the great city where finance and commerce 
show alike their good and their bad sides. Her 
influence makes always to strengthen the things 
which are good. In her financial management she 
illustrates a business trust faithfully administered 
without a breach for one hundred and thirty years. 
On her educational side she displays the splendid use- 
fulness of money which is received, not to be hoarded, 
but to be well spent. She is profoundly conscious 
that what she is doing is but the earnest of what she 
yet may do, if New York will but make common 
cause with her, and enlarge and broaden and deepen 
her work on every side. She aims to-day to turn out 
three different types of men. Her historic work, that 
which she did for half a century before she did any 
thing else, she is still doing. She aims to develop the 
cultivated man, the educated gentleman ; the man 
who, without being a specialist in any thing, has been 
educated enough in all directions to be in sympathy 
with all learning ; the man who knows enough about 
the past to recognize the value of it and of all expe- 
rience, but who is not bound down by the past ; the 
man who knows enough about the present to glory in 
its achievement and its promise, but who never forgets 



THE PRESIDENT'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 57 

what it means of indebtedness to those who have 
gone before, to be " in the foremost files of time." In 
a word, she aims to develop the thoughtful and well- 
informed citizen, and to fill him with her own high 
aspirations as to his citizenship and his life. The 
splendid products of this work adorn the history of 
the city and the nation from the beginning of our 
career. We want to do, not less of it, but more, 
according as we have opportunity. 

In the process of time something other than this, 
however, was seen to be needed. Columbia came to 
realize in due order that the times demanded profes- 
sional education in medicine, in law, in applied science, 
in the science of economics and of government. Theol- 
ogy she has left, for valid reasons, to other institutions 
about her. The broad fields in which men of differ- 
ing faiths could journey in friendly company, she has 
assumed for her own. One after another, as her means 
allowed, she has taken up those subjects upon which 
men needed special training in order to be useful, and 
her School of Medicine, her School of Law, her School 
of Mines, or of applied science, her School of Political 
Science, are at once ornaments to this great metropo- 
lis, magnificent a city as it is, and invaluable contribu- 
tors to the professional life and learning of the land. 
Columbia College believes that even for this tech- 
nical and professional work, it is well for a man to lay 
the broad foundation of a general culture, but she 
does not refuse to recognize the specializing tenden- 
cies of the times, and to permit those who will to 
obtain the one without the other. Nevertheless she 
does say that, if a man can spare the time, he is 
throwing away part of his life and part of his power 



58 INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 

in the years to come if he does not submit at the 
beginning to the discipHnary training which cultivates 
the mind before he begins to plant the particular 
seed which he wishes especially to grow. Columbia 
College believes that the specialist, because he is a 
specialist, ought first of all to be a broadly developed 
man. 

Side by side with these men of a general culture 
and a professional training Columbia aims to con- 
tribute in increasing numbers still another precious 
type to the scholarship and citizenship of the times. 
She always has been doing something, she aims to do 
systematically more and more of the original work 
which belongs especially to our conception of a uni- 
versity in philosophy, in law, in science, and in every 
branch of learning. She aims to develop the patient 
student whose controlling desire it will be to add 
something to the sum of human knowledge. She 
aims to do her part to make return to Europe, for 
the benefits of research which Europe has bestowed 
with such lavish hand upon America. She looks 
assuredly for the day when European students shall 
come to New York and Columbia, where now our 
American youth go to Oxford and Paris and Berlin. 
No less a result than this, will satisfy Columbia's con- 
ception of what is within her power, if New York will 
sustain her in the work she seeks to do. 

To every one of these different types of men, in 
their studies and throughout their whole life, the Col- 
lege contributes that subtle and patriotic inspiration 
which comes from the accumulated glory of her history 
from the beginning until now. As there are some 
things which cannot be had without money, so there 



THE president's INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 59 

are things of inestimable value which cannot be had 
except with the passage of time. The rich endow- 
ment of a glorious age, that is a precious possession 
and a spur to glorious deeds which only time can 
supply. If there are men and women in New York, 
and I hope there are many, who wish to give to the 
cause of sound learning in this city, to the advance- 
ment of science, or to the encouragement of research^ 
I commend to them the thought that whatever is 
added to Columbia's endowment is guaranteed to the 
object for which it may be given by a property already 
large, yet large enough to cover but a small part of 
the work that lies all about us to be done ; that such 
a gift tends to make more useful an educational 
plant already of the first order ; and, above all, that 
it acquires, on the instant, the unique inspiration and 
power of Columbia's historic name. Hamilton and 
Livingston and Jay and Gouverneur Morris and 
DeWitt Clinton and all the rest, who have served, 
and are serving well their day and generation, breathe 
upon it a benediction and add to it a subtle but a 
genuine power. The New York of the past, so far as 
endowment is concerned, has enabled Columbia to do 
all that she has done, all that she is doing. She 
summons to her aid now with a glad confidence the 
New York of to-day. She recognizes in the munifi- 
cent legacy of Stephen Whitney Phenix, in the last 
great kindness to her of her great and devoted Presi- 
dent, the late Dr. Barnard, in making the College his 
residuary legatee, in the welcome gifts of F. Augustus 
Schermerhorn, of Jesse Seligman, of A. A. Low, and 
of Charles F. McKim, the happy beginnings of a ten- 
dency which will yet make Columbia what she ought 
to be, beyond all controversy the university of the 



6o INSTALLATION OF PRESIDENT LOW. 

land. She looks to you, young gentlemen, and to 
her alumni, to add to her fair fame ; she looks to the 
living New York to build upon the foundations so 
nobly laid by the past ; she looks to her faculties to 
give sound instruction, to hold fast the learning that 
men have wrested hitherto from experience and from 
study, and to carry the ever shifting boundaries of 
human knowledge forward into the vast unknown. 
This is the work she is doing here in the great finan- 
cial and commercial city of the western world. Some 
tendency there is on every side of her to put a money 
value upon every thing. Where wealth is seen to be 
so powerful it cannot but be that many shall think 
that it is all powerful. Against this mistaken ten- 
dency the College is now a silent and now an out- 
spoken witness. Learning, in her view, resulting in 
knowledge on the one hand, and involving truthful- 
ness upon the other, is a greater benefactress of man- 
kind. Wealth is powerful, certainly. Beneficently 
used it may be made to bless the centuries. Columbia 
seeks its aid for her own work. But the work of the 
College would be valueless to-morrow, if even the 
wealth of New York could bribe her instructors to 
teach as true what they know to be false. Truthful- 
ness is the one essential, fundamental quality of a 
teacher. Without it he may not be a teacher. Yet 
it is not the only quality. The teacher, like the 
scholar, must himself be teachable. An ever height- 
ening sky for human thought, an ever widening 
horizon for human knowledge, an absolute truthful- 
ness in the expression of the light within, these are 
the distinguishing marks of a great university ; these 
are the aspirations in whose strength Columbia girds 
herself afresh for the work that it is hers to do. 



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